earlier than ever again. lee cow an reports on the ever- extending battle for bargains. a massive holiday wreck in texas. at least 100 vehicles collide in the fog. and elaine quijano with a woman who saved thanksgiving for victims of sandy. >> happy thanksgiving. >> thank you. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> glor: good evening, and happy thanksgiving, everyone. scott is off tonight. i'm jeff glor. the cease-fire between israel and hamas has passed the first 24 hours. now comes the hard part-- negotiating the details of a truce to make sure is stays. a senior israeli official arrived in cairo today for talks. the head of hamas is there as well. in the meantime, israeli troops that were preparing for a ground invasion began pulling back today.

and in gaza, palestinians are cleaning up the damage left behind by eight days of fighting. charlie d'agata is in gaza. >> reporter: gaza city's deserted streets came back to life today. weapons on both sides fell silent as the fragile cease-fire held. after eight days of living in fear, thousands of palestinians gathered in the city square to show support for hamas. you can feel the sense of relief here on the streets of gaza city today that the fighting is over. but hamas is declaring this a celebration of victory. and despite more than a week of suffering, that's exactly how people here see it. imad told us this latest fight against israel has united palestinians. >> we have a great victory here in gaza okay. we imposed our conditions on them, okay, because we fight them.

>> reporter: hamas' prime minister ismail haniyeh, put it this way: he said, "i want to say to the palestinian people in gaza that the option of invading gaza after this victory is gone and will never return." israel's leaders would dispute that, but today their soldiers were pulling back from the border with gaza. at the same time, the israeli army chief of staff benny gantzed a stark warning. >> if gaza will stay quiet, if nothing comes out of it, gaza will be a quiet place. if the terror organizations will reoperate from gaza, the future is worse than it was. >> reporter: if this was a victory for hamas, it came at a heavy cost. today, they held funerals for some of the 162 victims killed in the week-long bombardment. some services had been put off for days because mourners were

afraid to go outside. it will take months to clean up the damage of the fighting and longer to build the trust needed on both sides so this cease-fire will hold. >> glor: charlie joins us now from gaza city. charlie, it's been more than 24 hours since the cease-fire took effect. where do things stand? >> reporter: now that the truce has held, jeff, the talks begin, and the real issue concerns gaza's borders. hamas wants to see them more open for the movement of people and goods at those borders, but it has been something israeli officials have been reluctant to give in on. they feel that more open borders opens the doors to weapons to being brought in to be used against them. >> glor: charlie d'agata in gaza city, thank you. egypt's president who helped broker the cease-fire amended his country's constitution today to give himself more power. mohamed morsi decreed that all

his decisions are final and not subject to appeal or review. he also ordered the retrial of former president hosni mubarak for the killing of protesters during the revolution. some egyptians protested morsi's action today, accusing him and the muslim brotherhood of seizing too much power. president obama spent the holiday at the white house. he phoned 10 american service men and women in afghanistan to thank them for their sacrifice. at a u.s. base in kabul, troops feasted on 200 turkeys and the trimmings. about 66,000 americans are still deployed in afghanistan. most are expected home by the end of 2014. as we reported here last night, america's ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, has broken her silence about the controversial remarks she made back in september about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed in that attack. sharyl attkisson in washington has more on that tonight. sharyl. >> reporter: ambassador rice

defended her comment from more than nine weeks ago when she said the benghazi attacks did not appear preplanned. she said that reflected the best intelligence at the time. >> i relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. i made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers. >> reporter: but intelligence officials told congress last week they knew almost from the start that benghazi was likely the work of terrorists, perhaps affiliated with al qaeda. in an appearance on "face the nation" five days after the attack, rice gave no hint of that. >> we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned. >> reporter: last week, former c.i.a. director david petraeus told congressional panels in closed sessions that someone in the obama administration removed references to terrorism and al

qaeda from his agency summary before it went to rice. a source told us the edits were made by the office of the director of national intelligence. republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham have led the call for a special committee to investigate. >> i was on "face the nation" the morning she came on and told that incredible story, and right after it, the president of the libyan national assembly said it was al qaeda. we know it was al qaeda. and yet she never changed her story. >> reporter: rice also shot back against mccain's criticisms. >> i do think that some of the statements he's made about me have been unfounded. but i look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him. >> reporter: now, after rice spoke last night, several republicans told us they want to ask the administration what evidence they had when they originally said the benghazi attacks started with a spontaneous mob inspired by an anti-islam youtube video, an idea that's now been set aside. jeff. >> glor: sharyl, thank you. in syria, rebel fighters said they captured a military base in a key oil producing region and a

government airstrike near a hospital in aleppo killed at least 15 people. activists say at least 20,000 syrians have been killed in a 20-month-old civil war. fighting is also intensifying around the capital, damascus. the assad regime rarely allows foreign journalists inside, but elizabeth palmer is there. >> reporter: we aren't allow to film the syrian military's shelling of the capital's suburbs, but opposition activists capture many of the strikes on their cell phones. this is what's happening within view and certainly within earshot of downtown damascus. we asked syria's minister of information, omran ahed al zouabi what it means for the regime. you've lost a lot of territory since i was here last. are you losing this fight? "of course not," he said, referring to the armed opposition as terrorists. "they don't have any popular

support and most of them aren't even syrian." everyone knows that like a noose, the fighting is slowly tightening around the capital, and yet with no solution, no peace agreement in sight, the people are increasingly, anxiously clinging to the routines of their normal lives. or at least what passes for normal these days. driving to work past military checkpoints trying to ignore the charred wreckage of car bombs, not to mention the huge water tankers parked outside syria's central bank in case it takes a direct hit. in short, people are putting on a brave face to mask the constant stress. "our children don't go to school anymore," this man tells me. "and every day we're scared by the noise of shelling." in fact, in the safe sayest

inner-city neighborhoods schools are still working. just look at this sixth grade class. 55, 11-year-olds crammed in for the first of two shifts. all of you who are a little bit afraid, especially at night, raise your hands. a bomb, this boy told me, went off right next to his old school, and his classmate said an explosion near his home made the whole building shake. does syria's government accept the blame for any of it? "no. it's the fault of armed groups who take refuge in populated areas," said the minister "and carry out a huge amount of butchery and bombing." >> glor: liz palmer joins us now from damascus. liz, are there still people living in the bombed out neighborhoods on the outskirts of damascus? >> reporter: jeff, i can hear the bombing going on as we speak

in the suburb off to my right. yes, there are people left, not a lot, maybe 80% of the population in some areas are gone, but those who are left have nothing but luck to protect them from the bombing. >> glor: liz palmer, thank you. in this country, there was a deadly chain-reaction collision this thanksgiving on a highway in texas. it happened on interstate 10 about 80 miles east of houston. more than 100 cars and trucks crashed in a dense fog. at least two people were killed. many folks left their vehicles to pull survivors from the twisted wreckage. others helped police officers tend to the dozens injured. the day after thanksgiving has been the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. but the new tradition seems to be shopping on thanksgiving. from today through sunday, 147 million americans are expected to shop. total spending this holiday season could top $586 billion. lee cowen joined the pilgrimage

at the mall. >> reporter: black friday, a holiday shopping tradition, is this year more like gray thursday. from wal-mart to k-mart, stores will be unwrapping bargains before thanksgiving leftovers are even cold. >> we have a single screen right there. >> reporter: while there's the predictable grumbling, jeff jones, the chief marketing officer at target, says it's the customers who asked for it. >> they tell us they would love to be able to shop after dinner on thanksgiving and really not battle the overnight scene if they tonight have to. >> reporter: wal-mart was the first to move its doorbuster hours back and other retailers feared losing market share if they didn't follow. >> it feels like early black friday has happened for a whole week now. >> reporter: holiday spending is expected to rise by about 4% this year. that's down from almost 6% growth for the last two years nay row. the bright spot-- internet sales.

they're expected to spike as much as 12%. katy hurley says that makes social media indispensable. >> people who are tech savvy and using social media are finding the best deals. best. >> you can't go by yourself and think you're going to get all the items you think you want. you have to take group of people with you and strategically tell them what their job is. >> reporter: and time in line means more time to buy. >> last year i came home with, like, six tvs. >> reporter: six tvs? >> i had stuff i didn't even need, and i still haven't opened. >> reporter: not everybody is happy about it. one target employee started an online petition called "take the high road and save thanksgiving." and wal-mart employees are using the weekend to protest what they call unfair wages and health care practices. some are planning to walk off the job. jeff, a lot of the stores like

sears, for example, say they're relying mainly on holiday workers to work on days like today-- thanksgiving-- ask on christmas eve. as for stores on targets they say they have more applications than they have jobs on order. >> glor: i wanted to ask you about the wal-mart protests. how disruptive might those protests be? >> reporter: well, if you ask the protesters themselves they say their goal isn't to disrupt business. they don't want wal-mart to go to go out business. they want to use the day to get attention focused on their cause. if you talk to people in wal- mart, they say no matter what is going out in the parking lot, what is going on inside, customers won't see any difference at all, they say. >> glor: lee cowen, thank you very much. a storm washed away their thanksgiving plan but neighbors came to the rescue. and a once-sleeping giant is wide weak again when the cbs evening news continues. ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪

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>> reporter: nick story has grown oranges in florida for 50 years, but now his 5,000-acre farm is under attack. this one is diseased. >> yes. >> reporter: how do we know that? >> we can cut across it, and we can see that the interior of it, the seeds in it are what we call dead and they will never mature. >> reporter: the culprit is citrus greening, a bacterial disease that kills orange trees by sapping nutrients. the insect came to florida with imported plant in 1998. the trees started dying in 2005. >> tree can be infected with this disease and not show symptoms for three years. so when we look at a tree that looks healthy today, we're not sure. we don't know. >> reporter: the industry estimates nearly half of florida's orange trees are infected. citrus greening has also been discovered in georgia, south carolina, louisiana, texas. >> we have lost jobs, 3.5 billion in economic impact since greening was discovered.

>> andrew meadows is with the trade group florida citrus mutual. >> i would say take a look at your glass-- eight-ounce glass in the morning and just imagine that not being there because that's how serious it is. >> reporter: pesticides kill the insect that carries the disease but there is no cure for trees infected with citrus greening. what is it like for you when you look at a tree that has this disease? >> well, first of all, i think about planting that tree. a lot of them i planted, and i think about how hard it's going to be to get another tree to that-- to that point. >> reporter: farmers and the u.s. department of agriculture are spending $69 million to develop a cure. but it could take years. that's left victor one option-- try to grow new trees faster than his old trees are dying. manuel bojorques, cbs news, lake wales, florida. >> glor: british researchers have discovered something interesting about human

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>> glor: doctors say former boxer hector camacho is now clinically brain dead. gunmen shot him in the face on tuesday as he sat in a car in puerto rico. they got away and the motive is not known. camacho won 50 boxing titles and retired from the ring three years ago. pope benedict is out with a surprising new book about the life of jesus. in it he makes a number of corrections. for one thing our calendar is off a bit. he says jesus was born a few years earlier than commonly believed, and those nativity scenes? the pope says they're not quite right, either. there were no donkeys or any other animals present during the birth, he says. in new zealand, an unstable volcano is expected to erupt again soon.

yesterday, mount tonga-riro sent up a two-mile plume of dense black ash that caused a local airport to cancel flights and sent hikers running for shelter. you can see it there. the volcano roared to life in august after being dormant for more than a century. what could have been a sad thanksgiving becomes an unforgettable holiday of hope. that story is next. of washington about the future of medicare and social security. anncr: but you deserve straight talk about the options on the... table and what they mean for you and your family. ancr: aarp is cutting through all the political spin. because for our 37 million members, only one word counts. get the facts at earnedasay.org. let's keep medicare... and social security strong for generations to come.

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reporter: for many families, this is how they celebrate thanksgiving. but increasingly, more people are spending turkey day camping the holiday is about giving thanks for what we have and sharing it with those in need. we end tonight with elaine quijano's story of how the haves and have nots were brought together this year. >> in the kitchen we lost the refrigerator, stove, dishwasher. >> reporter: renata sawicki lost just about everything when hurricane sandy flooded her home. it looked like she wouldn't have thanksgiving, either. >> i have no idea when our life is going to go back to normal. >> reporter: her daughter, olga, turned to facebook and signed them up on "a place at the table " a page started by jennifer kaufman after the storm. what was your goal initially with this facebook page? >> just to help people, just to throw it out there and to see

if something would happen. >> reporter: what did you expect was going to happen? >> i thought that there would be some mild interest. >> reporter: mild? >> mild, yeah. >> reporter: more than 600 people signed up. nicole surko enlisted her family to cook two dinners today. one was for the sawickis. >> here we go. >> reporter: they had never met. >> is this your home? happy thanksgiving. >> reporter: but embraced like family. >> god bless you. >> reporter: nicole surko's family didn't overlook anything. >> the wine. >> first the wine. >> reporter: and to the sawicki family, that meant everything. >> god bless. >> really thankful for all of the help we got from our neighbors and friends and everybody. [ crying ] >> if people who would otherwise be in a cold house ripping out walls on thanksgiving could sit at a table for maybe an hour or two and just have a meal and some good company, then my job is done. >> reporter: dozens of meals were delivered by strangers today, strangers who couldn't bear to see people like renata sawicki go without a thanksgiving dinner. elaine quijano, cbs news, union

beach, new jersey. >> that is the "cbs evening news" tonight. for scott pelley, i'm jeff glor. good night. >> your realtime captioner: linda marie macdonald good evening. happy thanksgiving. i'm elizabeth cook. >> i'm allen martin. some of believe it's a sure sign this will be a healthy holiday season. >> black friday is creeping into thanksgiving day. many bay area retailers opened their doors this morning and there was no shortage of bargain hunters. don knapp is watching the flow of shoppers. >> reporter: we're about to go live. i'll talk to you in a minute. i have talked to miss curry about it. she knows all about it. >> who? >> reporter: miss curry. yes.

>> reporter: 'tis the day before black friday, why are they shopping on thanksgiving? >> the deals. >> the deals. they have a lot of specials. we are exercising the online option too to buy things online. >> reporter: old navy has been bucking the black friday trend opening a day early. are you jumping the gun here? >> no. we are getting people to come in and shop with us a day and getting them to come back tomorrow. >> so some of these people back in line tonight? >> i guarantee they will be back tonight in line at the at midnight. >> we did an early breakfast and are taking advantage. seams. we'll do an early dinner. >>